DIY camera dolly frees up your hands to take care of the important stuff

Documenting your build process can sometimes be an incredible pain, as it’s quite difficult to take pictures or video while you are in the middle of soldering. Professionals who demonstrate things on TV for a living have the benefit of a camera crew and special rigs to catch the action from every angle – the rest of us don’t have that luxury.

[Steve] felt the same frustrations as many of us do, and decided to do something about it. He built a movable camera dolly that can be suspended from the ceiling above his work surface for less than $30. The bulk of his camera dolly is built from PVC piping, with assorted bolts and washers holding things together. Skateboard bearings were used as rollers to provide smooth 2-axis motion for the entire rig, then he hung the entire apparatus from the ceiling joists over his workspace.

According to [Steve], the build process seems relatively easy and should take no more than an hour or so, and it can support pretty much any full-size DSLR camera you can find.

The more I look at this the more it makes me want to build one. I would love to build a new work table with this above it, or some version of this. I would want the XY action to be smooth, and bounce free. Most of the time it would just hang there, but if you are going to spend the time and money, it should be a little more solid. Just using larger diameter PVC would help a lot. Also I think I would like to add a remote monitor to see what was on the screen, and if it was in focus. That gets a little harder to do.

FIW;I tried to leave the following comment at Grathio Labs, but it kept telling me the the required name and email fields weren’t filled out when they indeed where.
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Nice project. An alternate way to use the tool handle compound if protecting the ball bearings is a concern is to use a mandrill with the same OD as the bearings to make “tires” that could be placed over the bearings. Perhaps RC model car components could be used instead?

(Sorry about the comments. MovableType went haywire about the time I posted this project and has been nightmare to figure out. And since I’m moving it over to WordPress within a week I’ve decided to let it be.)

This is a neat idea.. Although I think I’ll be mounting mine on an old movable desk light I’ve got laying around.. (It’s an ugly one that’s way to bulky to use as a normal desk light, but mounting it upside down and attaching a camera might make it usefull again)